Off the Grid, Tiny House Living, in the City!

A tour of my off-the-grid, tiny house life, in the city where I live without a debt or bill to my name!

My life serves as a voice and example for those who wish to simplify their life and learn to tread lightly on the Earth while leaving a positive impact on humanity. It is an extreme example for sure, but with the hopes to inspire you to make small changes in your life, one step, one day at a time.

For frequently asked questions and more videos, see FAQ for my Off the Grid Tiny House Life.

Transcript: The following is a transcription of Off the Grid, Tiny House Living, in the City!.

Welcome to my off-the-grid, in the city, teeny tiny house life. My name is Robin Greenfield, I live here in San Diego, California, without a single debt or bill to my name. It wasn’t always this simple though. I used to have a half-dozen credit cards, a fair amount of debt, and wanted to be a millionaire.

But now my life is all about happiness, health, and living for the benefit of the Earth, my community, and myself. I’m largely able to do this through simple living and today I’m going to give you a tour of my simple place.

Tour of the Tiny House

So how do I not have a bill to my name yet have a sweet spot like this? In exchange for using someone’s unused backyard, I am building him a fence, rainwater harvesting system, a garden, doing yard work, and improving the place. Plus, he’s just into what I’m doing and wanted to be a part of it.

So come on inside!

So this is it. This is all 50 square feet of it. It’s real simple but it gets the job done. I don’t spend most my time in here, but what I do in here is sleep, read, and cuddle. Most my time I spend outside, either out my community or out in the great outdoors. So this is it. I’ve got my possessions down to pretty much what you see here, but that’s it. So let me show you the outside.

Off the Grid

How about ‘off the grid’? What does that mean? It simply means not dependent on public utilities. Here I’m energy and water independent. These are the solar panels which I use to charge up a couple of batteries.

Rainwater Harvesting

I also harvest rainwater. Right here you can see the gutters that I built on my neighbor’s house. That just channels the water down into the downspout, then through the diverter, into these blue barrels. And since I’m a couple feet higher up than my neighbor, I actually have to pump it out of those barrels using this pump into these five-gallon jugs just like this and dump these five-gallon jugs into these barrels, which can store 165 gallons of rainwater. And then to use it, I just turn on the spigot and then I can use this for everything I need.

This is my outdoor kitchen. Some people would just say I’m permanently camping and I have no problem with that.

Filtering Rainwater for drinking

The rain that I collected goes into these jugs and then I pour that into the Berkey filter and the water comes out of here worry-free, no chemicals like chlorine, fluoride, arsenic, lead. It takes care of everything like that as well as bacteria, protozoa, and viruses. Then I fill up my cup and drink the purest water, at least the purest water around here and it is delicious.

Cabinet / Refrigerator

So this is the cabinet/refrigerator and I don’t need to refrigerate really because I buy my produce often and very fresh and everything else I buy in bulk, dried goods that I put in jars. So you can see here all my jarred food at the top, which I get from the local co-op. Then below I have my kombucha. I have my staples like honey, olive oil, and then my spices. I have my produce that I buy in small quantities often and just two bowls, two plates, two forks, and two spoons.

Kitchen Sink and Stove

So this is the kitchen sink and stove. It’s pretty darn simple. But not a single drop of water goes to waste here at my home. When I wash the dishes or wash my hands or whatever I have to do, the water goes down this little drain and into these five-gallon buckets which I then use to water the garden.
Here is the stove. It’s just a simple propane stove that is hooked up to a five-gallon propane tank. I used to use a rocket stove, which was more environmentally friendly than this. But what’s good about this at least is that by not being hooked up to the utilities, where there’s a seemingly infinite amount of fuel, I at least, since it’s a five-gallon tank, really have to pay attention to and watch my usage, so I’m much less wasteful.

Compost Toilet and “Bathroom”

So this is my bathroom, welcome inside. It’s very simple. The most important part of this is the toilet. The average American toilet uses 1.6 gallons per flush. Since I only have about two gallons of water per day total for everything, I can’t have a flush toilet. This is a compost toilet. You simply sit on the toilet and you go just like with any other toilet. But afterwards, instead of flushing, you grab some leaves and you put the leaves on top of your poop and then this goes into the compost.

Also, there’s a sink right here. This is just a basic sink that I can use to wash my hands and then this water, of course, is used to water the garden as well. So, a very simple bathroom. This cost me about $60 to put together. Next we’ll head off to the compost.

Humanure

In a typical house, you would find food scraps as well as yard waste in a compost pile, but here I’m doing humanure as well, which is human poop and pee. If you’re ever going to do this, I recommend checking out The Humanure Handbook which has all the important information in there. It’s important to do this right, but the amazing thing is that it doesn’t smell at all. I mean it’s important to heat the temperature up to at least, I think, it’s around 130 degrees and as you can see here, there is actually steam rising. You can just feel the heat coming out of this. So everything breaks down and with humanure you have to let it sit for an entire year. And this tarp is simply over it to keep the moisture in since I live in a dry climate. This is a great way to reduce your impact by not having an agency or the city have to deal with your own poop and pee. Instead, I turn it into nutrients which will then be used in the garden.

Garden

This is my favorite spot. This is my garden. What you see here, these are called wicking beds, which are really awesome for drought-tolerant gardening and just making your water go further. Basically, below here is a reservoir that’s filled with rocks and there is burlap over that and there is soil over that, and you water the reservoir below through the PVC pipe. I planted all this food from starters about two weeks ago and it is looking great. I’m just excited to have organic, delicious, nutritious greens and this is another reason I don’t need a refrigerator, because my food will be growing right here and I’ll just pick what I need when I need to eat it.

City Code vs. Earth Code

So, as far as the city code goes, I’m actually pretty much in alignment there. As crazy as a lot of this may look, I’m doing pretty well. But for me, it’s not actually city code that I follow. I follow Earth Code. It’s about doing what’s right for the Earth, for my community, and for myself. And that’s what’s most important to me.

Hygiene and Showering

You will also probably have noticed by now that I don’t actually have a shower here and it may come as a surprise, but I actually have gone two years without showering. That would be pretty surprising to me two years ago as well, as I had been an everyday showering dude, but I learned that you don’t need to shower every day. Instead, I go for a swim in a natural body of water. I learned that I don’t need soaps, shampoos, conditioners, body washes, colognes and all that. My body functions just fine as it was intended to do, so I go for a swim here in the Pacific Ocean, which is five blocks away.

Bamboo Bicycle

And lastly, how do I get around? That would be my bamboo bicycle. I’ve actually biked across the country the the last two summers in a row on a bamboo bike, so biking around town is not too big a deal at all. But, when I am feeling real tired or I have something to carry that doesn’t fit on my bike trailer, I take an electric car through car2go, which is an electric car share program, because I sold my car about three years ago to live more environmentally friendly and just without so many bills.

Internet and Cellphone

And as far as internet and cell phone goes, I don’t have either of those. When I do need to use the internet, I hop on my bike, ride to a cafe, and share internet with other people. So life is pretty good here and life is pretty simple.